“I don’t care. We can always put new ones on. I just itch.” said Luc.
“Okay,” said Meg and took the claw from Luc.
Luc slowly got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. He got out of his pajama bottoms while Meg ran the shower. When it was warm, she helped Luc into the shower. Then she stripped of and climbed in with him. It took about ten minutes for the bandages to soak off. In the meantime, Meg soaped the exposed bits of Luc.
“I guess you got messy,” she teased as she scrubbed his lower back.
“Yeah, sponge baths just don’t work well on fur,” he said.
“Nope, they don’t,” said Meg. She started to work on the bandages, not exactly sure if she wanted to see the damage. She hadn’t been in the room when he shifted. The first layers peeled off and then the gauze next to the stitches. The first surprise was that most of them were staples and only those near his face were regular stitches. The side of his neck was a series of long rakes running from his earlobe and jaw line back to his shoulder. Nearly his whole shoulder was covered in scratches and gashes that were scabbing up inbetween the claw marks that were stapled closed.
“Oh Luc,” said Meg. “Do you want to see it?”
“No, I saw it in the hospital. Ugly mess, but I never said I was a beauty queen,” he said softly.
“The doctor said it was close, but I didn’t realize how close,” she said realizing how near to the jugular the one claw had gotten.
“I almost died. If you hadn’t taken over the driving, I would have died,” he said turning his head into the water. The water hid his tears.
Meg wrapped her arms around him. “Let’s get you out of the shower and dried off. We can bandage lightly and then you need to sleep,” she said.
Luc nodded. It took forever to get him dried off. They got his pajama bottoms on and the bandages done up enough that he wouldn’t rub his stitches against the sheets. He got in bed and Meg went out to make them something to eat.
She came back with toasted cheese sandwiches, tomato soup in cups and peanut butter cookies. It was painful for Luc to eat, so they didn’t talk much while they devoured the food. Meg took the empty dishes to the kitchen and then they curled up in bed. Meg wrapped her arms around Luc as they snuggled.
“You know, this has to be a first,” he said.
“Oh? What kind of first?” Meg asked.
“Here we are in bed, alone in the house, and I haven’t ravished you,” he said in a teasing tone.
“Like you could,” she said sarcastically.
“Believe me, if I didn’t hurt so much, I would ravish you until you passed out,” he said.
“Well, I’ll hold you to that. Just remember, when you are healed and the doctor says you can go back to being yourself, you owe me one ravishment, and a total pass out from pleasure,” said Meg.
“I promise,” he said with a yawn. In moments, they were both asleep.
*
Meg woke to the sound of metal ‘chinking’ next to her ear. “What the hell?” she thought. Opening her eyes, she saw little bits of metal laying on the bed next to Luc. She picked one up and realized that it was one of his staples. There was blood on the bandage as well.
“Luc, wake up, you’re shedding staples and bleeding,” she said.
“Damn. I better call Jeff. I didn’t think they’d start coming out so soon,” he said as he sat up and reached for the phone.
“I’ll get dressed and start making us some breakfast,” said Meg heading to the bathroom. She dressed in record time. Showers were for later. Once she was dressed, she headed to the kitchen. Coffee… Oh did she need it this morning. “Luc, do you want some cinnamon rolls?” she called from the kitchen.
“Yummm! I’d love some and some coffee,” he said in a pitiful voice.
“You’ll get your coffee. Did you get ahold of Jeff?” she asked standing in the bedroom door.
“Yes, I caught him just before he left for work. He’ll be over in about ten minutes,” said Luc.
“Okay,” she said and headed back to the kitchen.
Meg had just taken the cinnamon rolls out of the oven when she heard the door open. Looking up, she saw Jeff walk right in. This was a habit that she still wasn’t use to that Luc and his family thought nothing about.
“Hello Meg, where’s the patient?” asked Jeff.
“He’s in the bedroom. Just follow me,” she said. Meg had Luc’s coffee and two rolls on a plate in her hand. She set his breakfast down on the nightstand next to Luc. “Do you want coffee and cinnamon rolls Jeff?”
“I’d love some,” he said sitting down on the bed next to Luc. “Now, what the hell have you been doing to my handy work?” he asked Luc.
“All I did was shower and go to bed. I was too tired to even consider ravishing Meg,” he said with sorrow in his voice.
“Oh poor Meg,” teased Jeff. “Let’s get a good look at this mess.” With that, he pulled off the bandage. More staples fell to the bed. He picked them up and tossed them in the trash. Then he grabbed a weird looking tool that looked like a cross between tweezers and a staple remover. He started removing the staples in a smooth and efficient manner. “You healed up faster than I expected,” he told Luc.
“I was afraid of that,” said Luc.
Meg came in with Jeff’s coffee and rolls and set them next to Luc’s. “Are you taking out all of the stitches?” she asked.
“Yes. If I wait even another day, the skin will have grown over them and that would really hurt,” said Jeff as he replaced the staple remover with scissors and tweezers. He began to cut the stitches. “However, what fur-brain here has to remember is that while the skin and injuries are healing on the top, there is still a lot of muscle damage underneath that isn’t healed up yet. He will need to stay in bed for the rest of the week and take it easy,” said Jeff. He took a sip of coffee and then ate one of the rolls. “Oh this is good. Do you think I can get all of my house call patients to cook like this?” he asked with a smile.